Bill Lockwood
William Henry Lockwood
Born: 25 March 1868, Old Radford, Nottinghamshire
Died: 26 April 1932, Old Radford, Nottinghamshire
Major Teams: Nottinghamshire, Surrey, England.
Known As: Bill Lockwood
Batting Style: Right Hand Bat
Bowling Style: Right Arm Fast
Test Debut: England v Australia at Lord's, 1st Test, 1893
Last Test: England v Australia at The Oval, 5th Test, 1902
Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1899
Career Statistics:
TESTS
(career)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St
Batting & Fielding 12 16 3 231 52* 17.76 0 1 4 0
Balls M R W Ave BBI 5 10 SR Econ
Bowling 1973 100 883 43 20.53 7-71 5 1 45.8 2.68
FIRST-CLASS
(career: 1886 - 1904)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St
Batting & Fielding 362 531 45 10673 165 21.96 15 48 140 0
Balls R W Ave BBI 5 10 SR Econ
Bowling 52140 25246 1376 18.34 9-59 121 29 37.8 2.90
- Explanations of First-Class and List A status courtesy of the ACS.
StatsGuru Filters for Bill Lockwood
Profile:
A difficult, troubled and awkward character, Bill Lockwood
struggled with his demons thoughout his career, but at his best
was a magnificent fast medium bowler. Unable to gain a place for
his native Nottinghamshire, he moved to Surrey, where he learnt
much from George Lohmann. By the early 1890s he was one of the
finest bowlers in England, bowling at a brisk fast medium, with a
high action and pronounced body swing, and clever variation of
pace. His speciality was the break-back, often pitching outside
off but pounding into the batsman's thigh or passing over leg
stump. He also generated speed off the pitch (or appeared to do so), and had a slower ball
"of almost sinful deceit". A good bat, with 15 first class hundreds, he tended to
ignore his batting in favour of bowling, but did enough to be
classed as a genuine all rounder, averaging 21.9 in first-class
cricket.
Albert Knight, his contemporary, wrote of him "Lockwood would
break back and nip a piece of one's thigh away, looking at one
the while and wondering why the blind gods should waste such a
delivery on mere flesh"
His career started a downslide with a disastrous tour of
Australia in 1894-95, where he performed pooorly on the field,
and was accident prone off it, injuring a shoulder, nearly
drowning, and severely cutting a hand when a soda syphon
exploded. His miseries were compounded on his return when in a
short period both his wife and one of his children died, and he
turned to drink. His form suffered badly, and by 1897 he was out
of the Surrey side. Surrey persueded im to pledge temperance and
he made a remarkable recovery, taking 134 wickets in 1898, and
returning to the Test team, playing until the amazing 5th Test in
1902, where, amongst the legendary exploits of Jessop. Hirst, and
Rhodes his 5 second innings wickets are nearly forgotten. He had
a brief re-aquantaince with his drinking problems in 1901, when
again he lost form after his action was questioned, and his
benefit was completely rained out. Careful handling by Surrey
took him through to his retirement in 1904. He returned to his
native Nottinghameshire, and was a common sight at Trent Bridge
in his retirement. (DL and JG, 2000)
Last Updated: Monday, 29-Jul-2002 14:38:22 GMT
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